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Video, Broadcast, Telecom Case Study

DP Zac Halberd

New York City-based Director of Photography Zac Halberd recently shot the premiere season of Season on the Edge with Panasonic AG-AF100 large imager HD cinema cameras. The travel adventure fishing show is currently airing on the NBC Sports Channel.

Challenge

Solution

Halberd chose the Panasonic AG-AF100 large imager HD cinema camera because it was durable enough to withstand the extreme environments of the outdoor shoots while providing a hefty workflow.

Result

The production team feels like the AG-AF100 perfectly captures imagery that match the beauty of the adventure.

The series is the creation of director/host Ken Baldwin and producer Brett Gordon; Baldwin is a veteran fisherman who guides and photographs for the Rainbow Bay Resort, a fly-in, full-service hunting and fishing lodge in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

"Season on the Edge is an adventure program shot cinematically that incorporates local characters, food, music and wildlife," said Halberd. "We don't just take the audience fishing, we take them on the regional tour with us, trying to capture the world around us for total immersion. In short, this ain't bubba on a bass boat."

Since signing on with the series, Halberd shot the hunt for redfish in New Orleans, snook in the Everglades, peacock bass in the Amazon, rainbow trout in Alaska and largemouth bass in Mexico. The DP, also shooting a documentary-in-progress about New York's Hudson River with the AF100, has completed additional high-profile AF100 projects, including an episode of CBS Sports' The Best of College Football and photographing pick-ups for a Channel 4 (Britain) television series, Living with the Amish.

"We've had the AF100 in all sorts of nasty places for Season on the Edge, and the camera has been a workhorse for me," Halberd said. "It's a great tool. This is hard-core fishing in extreme environments, with all the elements against us. Not to mention a hefty workflow."

Trading up from an EX1, Halberd purchased an AF100 last spring. "On the one hand, I wanted a larger chip," he said. "My clients were asking for that shallow depth-of-field look. But I was aware of certain limitations with HDSLRs, and I required a stable, professional camera with XLR inputs. I specialize in faster-paced programming, and my clients can't wait for me to fiddle around to make an HDSLR a production camera."

Moreover, the Season on the Edgeassignment was looming. "I didn't want to take a DSLR to the jungle," Halberd said. In fact, the DP persuaded production company Argoworks (Los Angeles, CA) to purchase a second AF100 for the series, which is operated by cameraman Reuben Reynoso. "We've been using a variety of Nikon, Canon and other lenses," Halberd said. "I tend to stay wide, with an 11mm prime lens.

Reuben works closer with a Lumix 14:140mm super zoom. For night shoots, we've utilized the Voigtlander 25mm lens." "We've made extensive use of the AF100's variable frame rate recording," he noted. "There are classic shots in a fishing show — the hook set, the fish striking the lure — that demand slo-mo. We've captured all that at 60 fps. We got a spectacular shot of a fish walking on its tail that looks so cinematic and epic." "Ken Baldwin and Brett Gordon, the show's creators, wanted the imagery to match the beauty of the adventure, and the production team agrees we‘re attaining that with the AF100s."

For more information about the series, visit www.seasonontheedge.com; for more information about Halberd, visit www.zachalberd.com.